I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

So Reverse Angle parking - which has cars backing into a space, rather than pulling in head first - solves this problem. It gives those cars great visibility of oncoming cars and bikes/peds. We need more of this on streets that can support it.

Traffic & Engineering's initial 2014 renderings had reverse angle parking for all diagonal parking on north side of First St. Shuster chose to ignore and striped how they wanted it. Traffic & Engineering caved and didn't pursue or demand that they re-stripe.

Wow, that sucks. Not following how this happened though as the city responsible for the street striping.

Not sure how accurate is the depiction provided by jklm. From what I have seen, the PADNA pushed for the reconfiguration of the previous parking setup, first pushing for signage about parallel parking on the south side, and then openly advocating for part (half?) of the EV parking to be rolled back onto regular parking.

As for the theory that Shuster went ahead and did parking however they chose, I find it lacking in credibility: those spots were negotiated with the city for EV parking. The council had to approve that setup (20 spots for EV parking) and the council was the one that had to approve the rollback that was passed/approved a month or two ago.

I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

So Reverse Angle parking - which has cars backing into a space, rather than pulling in head first - solves this problem. It gives those cars great visibility of oncoming cars and bikes/peds. We need more of this on streets that can support it.

Traffic & Engineering's initial 2014 renderings had reverse angle parking for all diagonal parking on north side of First St. Shuster chose to ignore and striped how they wanted it. Traffic & Engineering caved and didn't pursue or demand that they re-stripe.

Wow, that sucks. Not following how this happened though as the city responsible for the street striping.

I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

So Reverse Angle parking - which has cars backing into a space, rather than pulling in head first - solves this problem. It gives those cars great visibility of oncoming cars and bikes/peds. We need more of this on streets that can support it.

Traffic & Engineering's initial 2014 renderings had reverse angle parking for all diagonal parking on north side of First St. Shuster chose to ignore and striped how they wanted it. Traffic & Engineering caved and didn't pursue or demand that they re-stripe.

I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

So Reverse Angle parking - which has cars backing into a space, rather than pulling in head first - solves this problem. It gives those cars great visibility of oncoming cars and bikes/peds. We need more of this on streets that can support it.

nafco wrote:adding bike lanes on both sides can both allow a safe lane for travel for bikers while also reducing the width of the driving lanes (without eliminating parking). Narrower lanes naturally slow the speed of traffic since people psychologically drive slower in narrow spaces and faster in wider ones. its a two-fold and simple step to helping the pedestrian issue and speeding issue.

I know that the "narrower lanes lead to reduced speeds" philosophy is taken as an absolute truth, but recent changes to the layout of 1st Street have resulted in the exact opposite. The southern side of the street between Marin and Provost was modified to remove diagonal parking and parallel parking spots were implemented over the road surface, creating a narrower traffic lane, and yet through traffic has increased in speed and, weirdly, also in volume.

perhaps im misunderstanding but how do parallel spots take up more room than diagonal spots? wouldnt parallel spots instead of diagonal widen the through lane?

You are misunderstanding because I failed to explain it properly. The previous arrangement had diagonal parking that abutted the building on the South side of 1st St. When they decided to do without the diagonal parking, they didn't put the spots along the side of the building. Instead, they painted the spots on the road surface, which is about 7+ feet away from the side of the building.

Interesting, though a small and possibly idiosyncratic situation. Maybe the novelty of the angle parking there (it's a somewhat uncommon sight in JC) had been calming traffic despite the wide car right-of-way? Dunno.

I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

nafco wrote:adding bike lanes on both sides can both allow a safe lane for travel for bikers while also reducing the width of the driving lanes (without eliminating parking). Narrower lanes naturally slow the speed of traffic since people psychologically drive slower in narrow spaces and faster in wider ones. its a two-fold and simple step to helping the pedestrian issue and speeding issue.

I know that the "narrower lanes lead to reduced speeds" philosophy is taken as an absolute truth, but recent changes to the layout of 1st Street have resulted in the exact opposite. The southern side of the street between Marin and Provost was modified to remove diagonal parking and parallel parking spots were implemented over the road surface, creating a narrower traffic lane, and yet through traffic has increased in speed and, weirdly, also in volume.

perhaps im misunderstanding but how do parallel spots take up more room than diagonal spots? wouldnt parallel spots instead of diagonal widen the through lane?

You are misunderstanding because I failed to explain it properly. The previous arrangement had diagonal parking that abutted the building on the South side of 1st St. When they decided to do without the diagonal parking, they didn't put the spots along the side of the building. Instead, they painted the spots on the road surface, which is about 7+ feet away from the side of the building.

Interesting, though a small and possibly idiosyncratic situation. Maybe the novelty of the angle parking there (it's a somewhat uncommon sight in JC) had been calming traffic despite the wide car right-of-way? Dunno.

nafco wrote:adding bike lanes on both sides can both allow a safe lane for travel for bikers while also reducing the width of the driving lanes (without eliminating parking). Narrower lanes naturally slow the speed of traffic since people psychologically drive slower in narrow spaces and faster in wider ones. its a two-fold and simple step to helping the pedestrian issue and speeding issue.

I know that the "narrower lanes lead to reduced speeds" philosophy is taken as an absolute truth, but recent changes to the layout of 1st Street have resulted in the exact opposite. The southern side of the street between Marin and Provost was modified to remove diagonal parking and parallel parking spots were implemented over the road surface, creating a narrower traffic lane, and yet through traffic has increased in speed and, weirdly, also in volume.

perhaps im misunderstanding but how do parallel spots take up more room than diagonal spots? wouldnt parallel spots instead of diagonal widen the through lane?

You are misunderstanding because I failed to explain it properly. The previous arrangement had diagonal parking that abutted the building on the South side of 1st St. When they decided to do without the diagonal parking, they didn't put the spots along the side of the building. Instead, they painted the spots on the road surface, which is about 7+ feet away from the side of the building.

nafco wrote:adding bike lanes on both sides can both allow a safe lane for travel for bikers while also reducing the width of the driving lanes (without eliminating parking). Narrower lanes naturally slow the speed of traffic since people psychologically drive slower in narrow spaces and faster in wider ones. its a two-fold and simple step to helping the pedestrian issue and speeding issue.

I know that the "narrower lanes lead to reduced speeds" philosophy is taken as an absolute truth, but recent changes to the layout of 1st Street have resulted in the exact opposite. The southern side of the street between Marin and Provost was modified to remove diagonal parking and parallel parking spots were implemented over the road surface, creating a narrower traffic lane, and yet through traffic has increased in speed and, weirdly, also in volume.

perhaps im misunderstanding but how do parallel spots take up more room than diagonal spots? wouldnt parallel spots instead of diagonal widen the through lane?

nafco wrote:adding bike lanes on both sides can both allow a safe lane for travel for bikers while also reducing the width of the driving lanes (without eliminating parking). Narrower lanes naturally slow the speed of traffic since people psychologically drive slower in narrow spaces and faster in wider ones. its a two-fold and simple step to helping the pedestrian issue and speeding issue.

I know that the "narrower lanes lead to reduced speeds" philosophy is taken as an absolute truth, but recent changes to the layout of 1st Street have resulted in the exact opposite. The southern side of the street between Marin and Provost was modified to remove diagonal parking and parallel parking spots were implemented over the road surface, creating a narrower traffic lane, and yet through traffic has increased in speed and, weirdly, also in volume.

adding bike lanes on both sides can both allow a safe lane for travel for bikers while also reducing the width of the driving lanes (without eliminating parking). Narrower lanes naturally slow the speed of traffic since people psychologically drive slower in narrow spaces and faster in wider ones. its a two-fold and simple step to helping the pedestrian issue and speeding issue.

Jersey City officials say they will build the city's first protected bike lane on Grand Street.

By Letters To The Editor

Help us bring awareness and fact-based knowledge to the public. A clear lane for emergency vehicles. A left hand turning lane. Safer traffic flow. Quicker bus transit. Safe routes to school. An improved corridor for businesses. A safer road design on a street with crash rates that are among the highest in the city.

These types of changes are possible for Grand Street. The Grand Street Concept Development is the next phase in an open, public process to bring the entire length of Grand into the 21st century. The primary goal is to make this corridor safer for all users: pedestrians, mass transit users, motorists and yes, those of us who use a bicycle.

Presently Grand Street is dangerous. Vehicles are often traveling well over the speed limit. Pedestrians are struck by cars. Most cyclists are scared to ride on it. Access into Jersey City Medical Center can sometimes be a challenge. Businesses wish for more foot traffic.

Solutions to these problems are presented in the Concept Development. Over the past eight years Bike JC has advocated for safer cycling in our city, and we selected Grand Street because of its poor safety record and because it connects so many neighborhoods, everyone wants to use it but it's design screams, CARS ONLY!

Speed data was collected from the corridor to discover the average was between 35 & 40 mph, well over the citywide limit of 25 mph. We brought this information along with some rough design ideas to the council and they unanimously agreed that something must be done. What the city has done is to hire an engineering firm called Stantec to study the corridor and make design suggestions for a safer Grand Street and a company called Fitzgerald & Halliday to conduct public outreach. The Concept Development is the result of their work.

Suggested safety improvement designs include a center turning lane that will keep traffic flowing in a more orderly and efficient manner as well as the added benefit of an open lane down the middle of the road to allow emergency vehicles to get to their destinations more quickly. Pedestrian safety improvements, protected bikelanes and improved mass transit are all possible.

To get a complete understanding of this safety design, please go to our website at BikeJC.org and watch the embedded video on the right side of the page. Follow us on social media for announcements of public outreach opportunities where you can join in this democratic process to modernize Grand Street.